It's Not Forbidden
by DarkProfessor
Summary: It's hard to keep a promise to help someone when you don't know what they're doing. That's exactly what she did though. She sacrificed so much to gather what she needed so she could keep that promise to help her cousin. She wasn't supposed to fall in love with him. It wasn't part of the plan. Now she must choose. Save Draco or save Severus. Maybe just maybe she can save both.


The Great Hall was alight with hundreds of candles and the laughter of friends who hadn't seen each other for an entire summer. The Ravenclaw table seemed to be especially exuberant in their conversations. There were, however, four people who weren't sharing their housemate's joy. Christina Riddle sat near the back of her house's table with her three friends discussing a request from her aunt and uncle.

"Did they say what Draco's task is," asked her childhood friend Dorian.

"No," Christina shook her head, "all they said was that it would be impossible for him to complete on his own. I am really worried."

"As you should be. Clearly they are asking you to do something highly illegal."

"Why, thank you for stating the obvious, Rose. I don't know what we would do without your oh-so astute observations!"

Rose gave Dorian an icy glare and flicked her blonde hair over her shoulder. She opened her mouth, undoubtedly to deliver a scathing retort, but Juliette put a stop to that by stepping on Rose's foot.

"Christi needs our help and support right now. Fighting amongst ourselves is not going to help her."

"What about you, Issak? You've been very quiet this evening. What do you think my cousin's mission is?"

"I don't know, but we shouldn't jump to conclusions. I will do some crystal gazing this evening. Perhaps I'll see something of importance."

"I'll do some scrying tomorrow night. It's always easiest for me when the moon is full. My house elf Darla should have my pure spring water by then as well. If not then I'll just have to use my mirror."

"Why did you run out of water? You stocked up before school ended last year."

"My father wanted to know how the war is going to end. However I can't see anything concerning him. In his anger he threw my crystal container of spring water against the wall where it shattered. My mother bought me a new one the next day."

"What did Voldy do after that?"

"Christina laughed weakly at Dorian's new name for her father. He was always finding new ways to insult him. She ran a hand through her chestnut brown hair as she tried to think of an answer for her friends. An answer that wouldn't tell them everything, but tell them enough to satisfy their curiosity.

"Well he yelled at me and threw me into the cellar." She filled her plate as the food appeared in front of them. "I got off easy if you think about it. He was mad enough that I daresay he thought about killing me for a few days. I suppose I must still be of use to him."

Christina cut a piece of her baked chicken with such finality that her friends knew she was done talking about her father. They too started on their meals and ate in silence, pondering possible topics of discussion.

"So…I see you made Head Girl, Christi."

"Yes, Mother, Uncle Lucius, and Aunt Narcissa were very proud when I told them. Didn't your sister have a baby over the summer, Rose?"

"Oh, yes, she did. A little boy. My sister and her husband named him Zane. He's the most adorable baby ever…"

Christina tuned out the rest of Rose's gushing, simply relieved that her friends were talking about something else. She disliked when they focused on her home life. She didn't like to be reminded that it severely lacked what other healthy families seemed to have in abundance. Love and warmth. Her almost normal family was being ripped apart now that her father had suffered some setbacks. He left her uncle to rot in Azkaban and gave her cousin a task that was so difficult that her aunt had asked her to help. But how could she help when she didn't even know what his mission was? She could always ask Severus Snape, but she doubted he would even give her the time of day.

Sneaking a glance at the staff table, focusing on the Potions Master in particular, she weighed the pros and cons of approaching the sour and bitter man. He'd probably take her head off in a second. On the other hand he might actually answer her question. She continued like this for a few minutes before deciding that the cons far outweighed the pros. Asking Draco and hoping that he would let her in on whatever it was that he was supposed to do was her best option.

A poke to her arm brought her out of her thoughts. She glared at Dorian who put his hands up as if to ward off her icy gaze. "I know you don't like being poked, but dinner is over. Everyone is getting up to leave."

Christina looked around before uttering softly, "Oh, I guess you're right. Well time to go and do our civic duties to Hogwarts. I am going to patrol the dungeons this evening even though I'm not assigned to them. Hopefully I'll run into Draco so I can ask him a few questions."

"If you do find him do you think he'll actually answer any of your questions?"

Christina shrugged at Juliette's skeptical look. "Who knows maybe I'll get lucky."

"No one is that lucky…at least not without Felix Felicis."

"Well I don't have any of that at the moment. Besides I can always give him detention for insubordination if he refuses to answer my questions. Now if you'll excuse me I have things to do and the two of you have Prefect duties to attend to."

Juliette and Dorian grumbled that the first years should try to find the common room on their own as they pushed through the flood of students and called the first years over to them. Christina couldn't help but laugh at their disgruntlement.

"Well normally I would help you, but I want to get my new quarters just right. Professor Flitwick was nice enough to send me some pictures and the last occupant had not taste of any kind."

Christina waved goodbye to her friends as she hurried out of the Great Hall. She skipped up the stairs to the sixth floor and looked for the tapestry that hid the hallway to her new rooms. It wasn't a very long hallway, only about twenty feet long. She walked up to a plain door and pushed it open.

There had to be at least three inches of dust on everything. The room was dark and smelled stale. Walking over to the window Christina dragged her finger across the window of her sitting room and shuddered when it made a steak in the layer of grime that covered the window. Well she had asked to have the old Head Girl rooms instead of the new rooms on the third floor. She understood that no one used these rooms in decades, but this much filth was nothing short of absurd.

"I should have never told Professor Flitwick that I enjoy a challenge. Me and my big mouth. It's really going to get me into trouble one of these days," she sighed.

She spent the time remaining until curfew cleaning her new bedroom. By the time she was done all of the dust had been removed from every surface and the grime had been removed from the windows. She had transfigured all of the furniture to suit her tastes. She transfigured the thin green covers into a purple silk comforter with silver scrollwork embroidered on it and transfigured the threadbare cotton sheets and pillow cases into black silk ones. She ran her fingers over the new silk sheets, smiling at their softness.

She looked towards the door that led to her bathroom forlornly. She really didn't want to clean it after her rounds, but she also didn't want to wait until the weekend. She wanted to use her weekend to clean and fix up her sitting room.

"Oh, fuck it. I'll clean when I finish my patrols."

Exiting her rooms she noticed something carved on the wall of the hallway. She hurried passed, mentally promising herself that she would investigate it later. Her chestnut tresses fell in her face as she made her way to the dungeons. She passed the Head Boy from Hufflepuff, whom she sneered. A Prefect from Gryffindor, whom she ignored. Finally she came upon Dorian and Juliette.

"We saw Draco in the dungeons. It would seem that he's staying down there tonight and save his sneaking off after curfew for another day."

"Thanks, guys. I really appreciate you doing a sweep of the dungeons before our assigned floors. Did you see Snape at all?"

"No. Either he's in his office or patrolling one of the upper floors."

"Good. He won't be around to influence Draco." Christina started down the steps leading to the dungeons when she suddenly remembered something. "Oh, the two of you are patrolling the fifth and third floors. Everything else has been taken. I'm not sure if it was posted in the common room or not."

Juliette and Dorian nodded their heads in understanding before heading off to start their rounds. Christina continued down the stairs and took her time patrolling the damp corridors. She handed out a few warnings to a few first year Slytherins and a small handful of detentions with Filtch to older Slytherins who thought they could backtalk her. After wandering around for what seemed like forever she finally stumbled upon her cousin pacing and talking to himself.

"Good evening, Draco. How are you holding up?"

"Christi," Draco exclaimed as he whirled around to face her. "What are you doing down here?"

"Well, I could say patrolling, but that's not completely true. My main reason for being here is to ask you a few questions." At his weary expression she added, "It will only take a few minutes. So how _are_ you holding up?"

"It's hard without Father, but I'm doing well."

"That's good to hear. You know there's a rumor going around that my father gave you a mission of sorts a few weeks before school started. Is there any truth to that?"

Draco nodded his head and now regarded her with a guarded look in his eyes. He clearly wasn't supposed to talk about his little task.

"Would you tell me what it is? Aunt Narcissa asked me to help you with whatever it is that you have to do."

"If my mother asked you to help me then you should have known that the rumors were true."

"I wanted to be doubly sure." A smile that was devoid of all emotion found its way to her lips. "What is your task, Draco? I'm sure I can help you."

Anger clouded Draco's face and his hands balled into fists at his sides. "I don't need you help! I can do this on my own and no one will steal my glory! When I tell the Dark Lord that I've done exactly as he's asked I will be praised as his most loyal follower!"

"I assure you that there is no glory to be found in what you're doing. Whatever Voldemort is asking you to do will only destroy your soul, dear cousin. I am asking you to let me help you minimize the damage."

"I don't want your help!"

"Draco, please listen…"

"Miss Riddle, I believe Mr. Malfoy has made himself clear. He does not require whatever assistance you are offering."

Christina slowly turned and faced her father's most loyal servant. Her peacock colored eyes met his cold ebony ones. Her full pink lips curved into a forced smile. Her voice dripped with false sweetness as she asked, "Is there something I can help you with, Professor Snape?"

He moved so that he was standing next to her cousin and laid a hand on his shoulder. "I believe you are harassing your cousin, Miss Riddle. I also know that you are scheduled to patrol the third floor this week."

Christina's forced smile slipped from her lips and a frown took its place. She watched as his thin lips twisted into a smirk. Christina wanted nothing more than to smack that smirk off his face. If he wanted to be like that then fine. She knew one way to get rid of that smug air he had around him.

"I know where I am to be patrolling, Professor Snape. I was simply doing Aunt Narcissa a favor and checking up on Draco. He seems to be fine, so I will be leaving," she stated as she turned to leave.

She had only walked a few feet when she halted. She turned around to face the two men, but stayed where she was.

"Draco, I hope you know that if you ever need anything you can come to me. Unlike some people," her gaze went to Snape, "you can trust me. Don't forget exactly who has benefited the most from Uncle Lucius' imprisonment. In case you _have_ forgotten he's standing next to you."

Christina couldn't keep the smug expression off her face when she saw Draco shrug Snape's hand off his shoulder. Her smug smile became even more pronounced when she heard him tell Snape to get away from him.

"Have a nice evening, gentlemen. Draco, I'll see you at breakfast."

Draco nodded his acceptance at her demand. She gave him a small reassuring smile, which he tried to return, before walking away to finish her rounds. Before she knew it she found herself back in her rooms. Quickly changing out of her school uniform and into her sleeping clothes she was in her queen sized bed in no time. She was asleep as soon as her head hit the pillow, not caring that she had to clean her bathroom the next morning.


End file.
